Kissinger Assails Report By Pike as‘Malicious Lie’

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12— Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger today accused the House Select Committee on Intelligence of practicing “a new version of McCarthyism” by producing a report “so distorted that it amounted to “a malicious lie.”

Charging that the committee, headed by Repesentative Otis G. Pike, Democrat of New York, had misused highly classified information “in a tendentious, misleading and totally irresponsible fashion,” Mr. Kissinger said the report — versions of which have been leaked to to the press — “must do damage to the foreign policy of the United States and has already done damage to the foreign policy of the United States.”

In reply to a question, Mr. Kissinger said he would resign as Secretary of State if it were in the American national interest but indicated he would not quit if it seemed that he was being driven from office by “the most irresponsible and flagrant charges” such as he alleged were in the Pike cornmittee report.

At the same time, President Ford, blaming Congress for the leak of a reported draft of the report, offered to provide the “full resources and services of the executive branch” to investigate the matter.

Ron Nessen, the White House press secretary, announced that the President had made the offer through an aide to the House Speaker, Carl L. Albert, in light of the publication yesterday by The Village Voice in New York of 21 pages of what were described as excerpts from the text of the controversial report. [Page 7.]

Mr. Kissinger, at a news conference at the State Department, showed anger not only over the Pike committee report, which directs some of its most severe criticism at him, but also over the apparent victory of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola, backed by Cuba and the Soviet Union.

Reiterating his frustration over the refusal of Congress to support the Administration's efforts to aid pro‐Western factions in Angola, Mr. Kissinger said, “It cannot be in the interest of the United States to create the impression that, in times of crisis, either threats or promises of the United States may not mean anything because our divisions may paralyze us.”

He charged that the Popular Movement had not won a victory but rather that a 12,000‐ member Cuban force, backed by $300 million in Soviet military equipment, had defeated the other Angolans.

As a result, he said, this has created a. pattern that could have “the gravest consequences for peace and stability, and it is one which the United States treats with indifference only at the risk of buying graver crises at higher costs later on.”

In his wide ‐ ranging news Conference, Mr. Kissinger also made the following points:

¶The earthquake in Guatemala is an “unparalleled tragedy” and he will visit that country on Feb. 24 at the end of a Latin American trip beginning Monday. The main purpose of the trip to Venezuela, Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica as well as Guatemala, is to discuss hemispheric issues, with emphais on economic problems.

¶Microwave radiation in the Arnerican Embassy in Moscow, reportedly caused by Soviet eavesdropping equipment, is an issue “of great delicacy which has many ramifications.” Dis cussions are under way with Moscow on the issue, he said, but refused to give any details.

¶The Administration will make a counterproposal to Moscow in a week or so on limiting strategic arms, and after a Soviet reply is received, “We will be able to judge how close we are to an agreement and what the next step should be.”

¶The United States was surprised by the disclosure in Peking that Hua Kuo‐feng would be the Acting Prime Minister but sees no changes in policy toward China. As for former President Richard M. Nixon's coming visit to China, Mr. Kissinger said it underscored the importance both sides attach to relations that were started by Mr. Nixon, but he stressed that the former President was going as a private citizen.

¶American ambassadors to the Middle East will soon be recalled for another review of what to do next diplomatically in that area. But before that, further discussions will have to be held with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin's Government to follow up his visit here.

Tired, Hoarse and Angry

Mr. Kissinger seemed tired and his voice hoarse. He reacted very angrily to questions about the Pike committee report.

The report, portions of which have been reported in The New York Times as well as in the latest issue of The Village Voice, has some sections highly critical of Mr. Kissinger.

For instance, the report has held him responsible in the killing of thousands of Kurdish people in Iraq when Iran stopped supporting their insurgency last year.

The report also accused Mr. Kissinger of being too secretive and of issuing statements “at variance with the facts” in regard to his handling of intelligence relating to possible Soviet violations of the first agreement on limiting strategic arms.

Mr. Kissinger said the Pike committee report, which officially has not been made public presented two problems:

“One, the use of highly classified information in violation of an agreement between the executive branch and the legislative branch.

“Secondly, the use of classified information in a manner that is so distorted, so geared to preconceived ideas, that the total impact is to produce a malicious lie.”

“And therefore, even when documents in themselves are correct,” he said, “they are taken so out of context and they are so fitted into a preconceived pattern that we are facing here a new version of McCarthyism.”

Mr. Kissinger was particularly angered by the committee's description of the downfall of the Kurds and his aides said that he was also bitter about two columns on the subject by William Safire in The New York Times.

Asked whether the United States encouraged the Kurds “to expect our support and then suddenly double‐crossed them,” Mr. Kissinger replied:

“That is a total falsehood. But it is impossible in these covert operations to explain the truth without creating every more difficulties. But the charges that have been made are utterly irresponsible.”

Mr. Kissinger's mood reminded some reporters of the period in June 1974 when he threatened to resign over charges that he had been less than candid about the wiretapping of 17 aides and reporters in the early days of the Nixon Administration.

In part, this was due to Mr. Kissinger's clear irritation at the presence at the news conference today of Peter Peckarsky, a national correspondent for The Buckeye News and Re view, published weekly in West Farmington, Ohio.

In June 1974, Mr. Peckarsky, then representing a paper at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, asked Mr. Kissinger when he had consulted counsel “in preparation for a defense against a possible perjury indictment.” That question touched off a series of events that culminated in a stormy news conference in Salzburg, Austria, in which the threat to resign was made.

Today, Mr. Peckarsky asked. a question on how Mr. Kissinger confirmed his official conduct. to “American Constitutional democracy.” Mr. Kissinger said, “I haven't seen this gentleman in over a year and a half and I think we will go to another question.”

Later, Mr. Peckarsky asked whether Mr. Kissinger had received—as alleged in the Pike committee report—a gift from the Kurdish leader, Gen. Mustafa Barzani, “and if so where is it?”

Mr. Kissinger refused at first to answer and sought to solicit another question, and then finally replied that General Barzani had sent a gift to the White House “which was never in my possession, which I have never received, Which I never in any way dealt with, which was kept in the White House in some regular procedure.

“And I have never received a gift from any other foreign leader” he added. “and I think it is a disgrace to believe, and to imply, that the United States would conduct foreign policy because of gifts that senior officials may receive.”

In light of the attacks on Mr. Kissinger, a reporter asked: “At what point does it become necessary for you to consider whether you In effect should not step down in the interest of American foreign policy?”

Mr. Kissinger replied that he would quit if it were in the interest of American foreign policy. “But what one also has to consider is whether the style of public debate should be that any public figure can be destroyed by the most irresponsible and flagrant charges,” he added.

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A version of this archives appears in print on February 13, 1976, on Page 69 of the New York edition with the headline: Kissinger Assails Report By Pike as‘Malicious Lie’. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe